Tiny scraps of info

A follow-up to Monday's post, which detailed some information I stumbled across on a site named AllMusicBooks. In an entry dedicated to Astral Weeks, writer Pat Thomas revealed this: "A good friend of mine recently reviewed the [Astral Weeks] multi-track master tapes."

Highly intrigued, I fired off an email to the folks at AllMusicBooks—and received this response from Thomas:

My friend works at Warner Bros. Records (Van's record company back in the day). As you know, last year they released a four-CD Moondance box set. They went back to the Astral Weeks tapes to see if there was very much "unreleased" material and as I said, there's not much.

Thomas also wrote this:

I work closely with and for Warner Brothers. (I live in L.A. and work in the music biz.) Sadly, nobody from Warners will speak with you, either on or off the record on Van. I've been lucky to get the tiny scraps of info that I've gotten and that's always been in the most casual of settings. I was lucky enough to touch the master tapes of His Band and the Street Choir, but even that was beyond lucky.

Hmmm ... Looks like my quest to get in touch with an individual from Warner Bros. to answer those Astral Weeks-related questions that have gnawed at me for years (who is the album's anonymous flautist; where were the club's overdubbed strings and horns done: Mastertone Studios or Century Sound Studio; etc., etc.) just got more arduous. At the same time, never count out a persistent, stubborn Mick.